Richard Dawkins & Rowan Williams: Is God Behind The Poetry of Reality? | Uncommon Ground
Rowan Williams
99.11
9 February 2026
12 February 2026
The world's most famous atheist, Richard Dawkins, sits down to talk with the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams in the very first episode of Uncommon Ground, hosted by Justin Brierley.
In a wide-ranging conversation on atheism, faith, poetry, music, meaning, love, complexity, suffering, evolution and survival they discuss whether God or science makes best sense of 'the poetry of reality'.
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A production of Think Faith.
00:00:00 Trailer
00:01:22 Introductions
00:04:00 Whatâs changed since New Atheism?
00:07:41 Can Williams summarise Dawkins?
00:12:19 Can Dawkins summarise Williams?
00:20:21 Is God just an âextra explanationâ?
00:27:23 Whatâs behind poetry & âthe mysticalâ?
00:35:45 Why should consciousness survive death?
00:39:01 Dawkins reads ChatGPT poems!
00:47:58 Is AI evolutionarily inevitable?
00:51:27 Empirical evidence for God from creativity?
00:59:27 What about the cruelty of evolution?
01:06:19 Is humanity too small for God to care?
01:09:09 Does God undermine science?
01:10:53 Is God âsimpleâ or âcomplexâ?
01:24:38 Is God an engineer?
01:32:19 What would change your mind about God?
01:36:32 Final reflections
Music license:
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